Rand Paul alters immigration debate

But by Tuesday’s end, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he was open to eventually allowing the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants to apply for U.S. citizenship.

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And Paul’s support could be influential among conservatives wary of a comprehensive immigration reform plan, especially one that includes an eventual pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

“What Rand Paul says matters more to me than what the [Republican National Committee] says,” said Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who chairs the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration. “Everyone is saying the same thing, and it’s going to be how arduous is the path, how long does the path take, what are the requirements in the path and border security, border security, border security.”

Paul, a likely presidential contender in 2016, is just the latest Republican to call for an immigration overhaul, as the GOP has taken a beating at the polls with Hispanics. This week, the Republican National Committee called for comprehensive immigration reform as a critical first step to reaching Hispanic voters.

Paul rolled out his plan at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday morning and pledged to be “part of the solution” on immigration reform.

While he didn’t use the word “citizenship” in his speech — and there was early pushback from his office that he endorsed a pathway — it became clear on a conference call with reporters on Tuesday afternoon that there was not much daylight between his views on immigrants eventually becoming citizens and a pathway to citizenship.

Paul explained to reporters that his proposal would give work visas to the country’s undocumented and he was “open to debate” on what to do moving forward.

“As long as those here want to work, I’d get them work visas, and as long as they want to apply, you get in the normal line for citizenship that’s already available, so it’s not a new pathway, it’s an existing pathway,” he said. “And then we need to figure out if the existing pathway isn’t working, how do we fix the existing pathway?”

Paul became something of a GOP cause célèbre when he gave a 13-hour filibuster on the Senate floor against U.S. drone policy in early March. He won the presidential straw poll at last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference, so his support for immigration reform is not insignificant.

And his fans, like libertarian-minded Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) who cheered on Paul’s filibuster on the floor, were supportive of the Kentucky senator’s immigration ideas.

“I think speaking for myself … I think the conservative position on this is that if we can fix the immigration system, create a pathway to legal status, then people can go through the normal immigration process and they may become citizens someday,” said Amash. “But it’s not because they are given any benefit. They are just going through the normal system.”